Harold Henthorn

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Harold Henthorn - Killer Spouse

When Harold Henthorn met Toni Bertolet in 1999 he found a second chance at love and marriage. His first wife had been killed in a bizarre accident years earlier.  How could an anniversary hike in Rocky Mountain National Park turn into tragedy? Was it an accident or did Harold cause Toni’s death? Two wives died under mysterious circumstances, bad luck, or careful planning?  You decide!

Rocky Mountain National Park - Daniel Mayer (Mav) / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)
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Rocky Mountain National Park Daniel Mayer (Mav) [CC BY-SA]

The Event

On September 29, 2012, Harold Henthorn and his second wife, Toni, had gone on a 12th-anniversary hike in Rocky Mountain National Park on a mild sunny autumn Saturday afternoon. Sometime before 3:30 pm the couple left the established, paved trail, to go on a rockier trail to avoid the crowds. Photos taken at this time show the couple eating lunch atop a scenic cliff overlook. An additional photo shows them atop a secluded cliff near the Aspengien portion of the national park.

At 5:15 pm, Toni fell 128 feet off the cliff. Unfortunately, it was in a remote section of the park that had poor cellular service and no nearby ranger stations. Harold called 911 approximately 45 minutes later. He told park rangers that he had to hike down to Toni’s body and assess the situation. Then he had to move her body and find cell coverage to call 911. The first 911 call was received at 5:54 pm.

At 6:16 pm, Harold sent a text to Toni’s brother, Barry Bertolet. He indicated that Toni was in critical condition after falling from a rock and that EMTs were coming. He also texted that Barry should fly out immediately and that his cell battery was low. After texting Barry, he continued to exchange several times with 911 dispatchers. This was between his first call at 5:54 pm until the first EMT arrived at 8 pm. They examined Toni’s body and reported her as having died from her injuries.

Toni Bertolet (37)

Toni was from Mississippi and the middle child of three (2 brothers). She was a prominent eye doctor and divorced. The Bertolets had made their money in the oil industry. She met Harold Henthorn through the Christian Matchmakers dating site in 1999. Harold described himself as an entrepreneur with his own company. He set up fundraisers for non-profit organizations, such as churches and hospitals. The name of the company was Development Services, Inc Not-for-Profit Fundraising.

Harold had lost his first wife in a freak accident. He told others she had died in a car accident.

One year after Toni and Harold met they got married in Mississippi. They soon moved to Denver, Colorado where Harold had lived previously because he said he had business contacts there. In 2005, they had a baby girl and named her Haley.

At one point, a family friend of the Henthorn’s had moved in with them for several months. He would note of his time living with them that when Toni went off to work, Harold went to the basement to make calls. Harold would go out for client lunches and travel for work. He usually left on Thursdays and came back on Sundays.

In 2006, Barry Bertolet was demonstrating his new CAT scan machine and discovered that Harold’s arteries were dangerously clogged.  Harold was rushed into surgery.

Harold Henthorn Investigation

Harold Henthorn planned to hike Bear Lake Trail in Rocky Mountain National Park but switched at the last second
Bear Lake Trail, Rocky Mountain National Park Image by Mike Goad from Pixabay

Right away, there were a number of questions investigators had. Harold told a park ranger that he and Toni planned to hike the Bear Lake Trail. It’s a ½ mile paved trail that is handicap accessible with no elevation gain. He told the Ranger that they switched to the Deer Mountain trail at the last second to avoid the crowds. Deer Mountain is a 3-mile hike climbing 1,200 feet from its trailhead to its 10,200 feet summit

This was an odd choice as Toni had undergone 3 knee surgeries. She also had chronic injuries that left her unable to even ski. Harold claimed that he was unfamiliar with the park. He indicated that he had only made one earlier scouting trip when planning the anniversary surprise. Park rangers found a park map in Harold’s car in the parking lot. It had notes written on it and a pink “X” marking the exact spot on the map where Toni had fallen.

Troubling Communications

His communications during and after Toni’s fall were also troubling for investigators. He gave conflicting details of Toni’s condition to Barry and 911 at various times. The 911 dispatcher attempted to coach Harold through CPR but doubted he had even performed it.

Less than 4 minutes into the call Harold told the dispatcher that he had to turn off his phone because his battery was almost gone. After hanging up on 911 Harold made another 22 calls and sent or received 98 text messages. These included multiple calls and at least 16 text messages to a friend asking if he could drive up to the park and pick him up. Harold even texted him the route he should take.

The biggest question was why did Harold hold 3 life insurance policies on Toni totaling 4.5 million dollars. When the ranger asked Harold about any life insurance Toni had, Harold only mentioned a $1 million policy which was for the couple’s daughter. The biggest reveal for investigators was finding out that Harold’s first wife had also died in a bizarre accident.

Sandy Lynn Henthorn (age 37) 

One evening in May 1995, Harold and Lynn had gone for a drive. They were about 30 minutes from their home, on Colorado 67 about 8 ½ miles west of Sedalia. Suddenly, Harold pulled over feeling that the front passenger tire was going flat.  This area had no cell service or houses nearby and the nearest hospital was a 40-minute drive. At 9:30 pm a local mechanic drove by Harold and Lynn and asked if they needed help, but Harold declined. The mechanic asked if he could shine his headlights on the jeep as Harold was only using a small handheld flashlight, but again Harold declines.

Around 10 pm, Harold flagged down another car and tells the occupants that his Jeep had fallen on top of his wife. The car drove up the road to try to find a house to call 911, but they couldn’t find one. They immediately returned to the scene to offer their help.  Two of the men from the passerby car were able to lift the car off of Lynn and free her. At the time she was unconscious. According to the men, Harold then screamed at them to not touch her. Over Harold’s objections, they began CPR and got Lynn to start breathing again.

During this time, another car came upon the scene and went to try to find a phone. They returned to the scene with blankets to cover Lynn. That night temperatures were near freezing and to keep Lynn warm the men who were trying to save her had laid their coats over her. Harold didn’t bother to do the same.

Emergency Vehicles Arrive

Emergency vehicles arrived on the scene and had Lynn airlifted to a nearby hospital, but she died in surgery due to her injuries that were consistent with traumatic asphyxiation. Harold soon began telling inconsistent stories as to what had happened. He reported that Lynn had been changing the tire, but then told others he had been changing the tire. Harold told officers that he had to use two boat jacks to prop up the car because he could not get the regular jack to work even after lubricating it. No lube or oil was found at the scene.

He also suggested that he was the one who had gotten Lynn out from under the Jeep and had started CPR. Harold failed to mention the good Samaritans that had stopped to help. He also switched between the reason they were on the road from either coming from or going to dinner that night.

Stories Don’t Add Up

A few days after Lynn’s death one of the good Samaritans who had stopped to help called the police to voice her suspicions about the “accident” and asked if Harold had been arrested. Although there were changing stories and the Samaritan’s suspicions there was only a brief investigation. Six days after police started investigating they determined that Lynn’s death was an accident despite the unusual circumstances.

In addition, police had taken pictures of a suspicious shoe print atop the Jeep’s fender, which could have suggested that the Jeep had been pushed off the jacks and not having just fallen off. Police had also taken photos of Harold’s shoes for comparison purposes, but no comparison was ever made. Police also never challenged Harold’s conflicting statements.

Harold was questioned about having any life insurance policies out on Lynn.  He only admitted to one, but in actuality, he had several. He had collected a total of $600,000 including proceeds from an insurance policy that went into effect 2 ½ months before Lynn’s death that included an accidental death rider that doubled the insurance benefit from $150,000 to $300,000.

48 Hours

48 hours did a story on this case and had an accident reconstructionist review Lynn’s case. They found it suspicious that the jack that came with the Jeep Cherokee didn’t work – per Harold’s claim. Investigators at the time just believed Harold’s claim and didn’t test the jack.

Harold claimed that he dropped a lug nut and it rolled under the car. Lynn went to retrieve it as he was throwing the tire in the back of the Jeep and it caused the Jeep to fall off the jacks and onto Lynn. The accident reconstructionist didn’t believe the lug nut had rolled under the car since it landed on a gravel surface so wouldn’t have rolled.

In 2014, the coroner changed Lynn’s matter of death from accident to undetermined and Douglas County Sheriff’s Office reopened Lynn’s case but has yet to charge Harold Henthorn.

The Cabin Incident in May 2011 (First Attempt?)

The Henthorn’s owned a mountain cabin near Grand Lake in Granby, Colorado. At 10 pm one night, Harold was “allegedly” completing some construction work or cleaning up the deck of the cabin when a beam had struck Toni in the upper back, injuring her neck.

The were many inconsistent versions of what happened. Harold told the paramedics he threw the beam that had hit Toni. He then told the ER doctor that the beam had fallen off the deck. He told a friend that he dropped the  beam onto Toni when he slipped from the ladder that she was holding. A nurse noted in Toni’s file indicated that Toni was under the deck holding a flashlight for Harold when the beam came down on her.

In an account given by friends who Toni had contacted to stay with her sleeping daughter, Harold had suggested Toni was cleaning up around the deck and had just bent down when a piece of lumber fell off the deck hitting her, but when friends arrived they did not see any lumber on the deck.

What is known is that prior to the deck incident Harold held four insurance policies totaling 1.5 million dollars on Toni, and he had made himself a beneficiary of a $250,000 life insurance annuity bought by Toni’s parents for their daughter. Toni told her mother later on that had she not been bending over to pick something off the ground that she would have been killed.  Toni was shocked to find out that Harold had never bothered to call her parents to tell them what happened that night. The doctor ruled the incident an accident since no one, including Toni, voiced any suspicions.  

Back to the Henthorn Investigation

The Investigators talked with Toni’s family and friends and discovered that Harold was a demanding and controlling husband. He always answered the phone when anybody called. He had their house phone ring to his cell phone. Any conversations that Toni had were always on speakerphone.

Christie Drews worked at Toni’s practice and told investigators that Harold insisted that he sit in on doctor meetings and seemed to want to be involved with everything to do with Toni’s work. Tammi Abbruscato, Toni’s Office Manager, told investigators that she found him creepy and that Toni was not allowed to schedule anything outside of normal business hours without consulting Harold first.

In 2012, Harold talked with Tammi about helping him surprise Toni for a 12th-anniversary trip to the Rocky Mountain National Park. So Tammi secretly cleared Toni’s schedule.

Harold’s stories varied about Toni’s fall. He told Toni’s co-workers that Toni was lagging behind and then he couldn’t find her and when he looks over the edge of the cliff he sees her at the bottom. He told the police that Toni was taking a photo near the edge of the cliff and accidentally fell over while he had been looking down at his phone reading a text he had received from his daughter’s babysitter about Haley’s soccer team winning 5-1.

Five days after Toni’s death, Harold had her cremated which was against her family’s wishes. In 2014, Harold was arrested and charged by Federal authorities with 1st Degree Murder and was held without bond.

Harold’s Trial (lasted 2 weeks)

When Harold’s trial began in September 2015 cameras were not allowed in the courtroom. The prosecution was lead by Federal Prosecutor Suneeta Hazra. She started with painting Harold as an abject liar who lies about everything and stood to make $4.7 million off of Toni’s life insurance, but only if Toni died.

The defense told the jury that “my client is very unusual, quirky, guy who has lied….but that does not make him a murderer”.

Prosecutors used drone footage and photos documenting the couple’s hike up the mountain. They also present evidence that Harold had visited the same area that Toni had fallen from on at least 8 to 9 occasions because his cell phone had binged off the same cell tower in that area. The prosecution presented evidence from the 911 call and called Julie Sullivan, emergency services dispatcher for Larimer Emergency Authority at the Este’s Park Police Department to testify.

Julie testified that it is standard protocol to coach people through CPR over the phone and she had experience coaching 240 individuals over the phone prior to Harold’s call. She testified to several red flags during her call with Harold. Harold wasn’t letting her know when he completed certain steps after she had given him instructions and he didn’t ask what to do next as most people do. He also wasn’t out of breath and on the open line she should have heard heavy breathing, but there was none.  She had even asked if someone else was providing CPR since he didn’t seem winded. About 4 minutes into the call Harold told Julie that he had to turn off his phone to save his battery which was almost gone.

Expert Testimony

Dr. James Wilkerson, the Larimer County Coroner Chief Medical Examiner who testified as a qualified expert told the jury that he estimated Toni had died between 20 to 60 minutes after her fall and was almost certainly dead by 6:15 pm. He also testified that during the 911 call beginning at 6:54 pm where 911 was coaching Harold on performing CPR he doubted CPR was even being performed. Dr. James Wilkerson also found no signs of abrasions, contusions, or anterior rib fractures typically associated with CPR being performed. Also, Toni’s lipstick was not even smeared which would be if mouth-to-mouth was performed.

The FBI presented evidence Harold had not worked in 20 years, had no money of his own and he was not raising any money for non-profit organizations. Evidence was submitted that showed that Harold’s business trips consisted of him sitting in a local Panera Bread where he surfed the internet for hours. The FBI also discovered that Harold had taken out a life insurance policy on Grace Rishell, his ex-sister-in-law.  The insurance policy was for $400,000 and he had forged her signature making himself the beneficiary.

The FBI testified that Harold may have also stolen the $30,000 diamond from Toni’s wedding ring after she fell. Police scoured the area during the initial investigation, but it was never found. Eight months later it was found in plain sight. The FBI had been putting pressure on Harold about the diamond and they believe that he went back and planted it.

Pattern of Behavior

The prosecutors shared with the jury the pattern of behavior between Harold’s two dead wives. Remote locations with impeded communications and reduced likelihood of accidental witnesses. Delayed emergency responders. After each incident, Harold told inconsistent stories.

Harold lied about the life insurance policies but collected significant proceeds from each life insurance policy after death. Also over family objections, he had cremated both wives and spread their ashes at the same spot on Red Mountain near Ouray, Colorado.

The defense rested their case without calling any witnesses. They asserted that he and his wives were victims of multiple tragic accidents. On September 21, 2015, after 10 hours of deliberation, the jury took a vote and every hand was raised for guilty. Juror Kim Thiessen who was interviewed by 48 hours indicated that it was the entirety of the evidence, rather than just one piece of evidence that convinced her. Juror Marxy Zahn said that direct evidence supported the circumstantial case. Harold was sentenced on December 8, 2015, to a mandatory life sentence with no possibility of parole and fined up to $250,000.

July 26, 2017

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Harold’s conviction. Harold argued that the judge in his original trial should have never allowed into evidence information on the death of his first wife, Sandra Lynn Henthorn. This information showed similar circumstances to those that led to Toni’s death. The 10th circuit ruled that US District Judge R. Brooke Jackson did not err in allowing it in.

January 8, 2018

The US Supreme Court denied a petition seeking a re-examination of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeal’s decision affirming Harold Henthorn’s conviction.

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